Maritime Youth House

The site was polluted with heavy metals (and therefore stable). To save budget the architects covered the entire site with a wooden deck (1600m2), so wasn’t necessary to clean the site first. The building is shared by two clients, a sail club and a youth house. The youth house needed outdoor space for the kids to play; the sail club needed most of the site to park their boats. The design is the literal results of negotiations between the two contradictory demands. Where the deck rises it allows for boat storage and, at the same time, becomes an exciting play area for the kids. The common room for daily activities is located in the front house, the workshop and storage is in the back corner building. In contrast to the wooden exterior decks the floor in the community space is white concrete and a standard grey concrete in the workshop and storage area. This is meant to reflect the dominance of the outdoor activities; the wooden deck is the actual "room" of the Maritime Youth House.

Living close to the youth centre I can highly recommend everybody visiting Copenhagen to take a closer look. It is absolutely fantastic situated away from everything but still close to Amager Strand Beach. The youth centre is also a part and parcel of the neighbourhood face-lift around Holmbladsgade and Amager. See more beautiful pictures of the youth centre at www.copenhagenx.dk/#28333